Hellfire on the Other Side Book 3

Chapter 19

Clara put her hair up in a ponytail as entered the pasture with Misty. Claytin had taken Lyle and Adri to the Court of Miracles leaving her home alone and a chance to go out and train a bit. She had sent up a few dummies in the pasture and had her sword and crossbow out laying up against the fence. She had her dagger tucked into her boots. "Ready Misty?" she asked patting Misty's neck. Misty gave her a look and snorted. "I am only tipsy, so don't give me that look. I know being Pegasus' daughter you understand more but I am not going back home to be bored, I need to do something. So can we do this one trick without the looks?" Misty snorted again and then nuzzled Clara to say ok. Clara smiled and climbed over and out of the pasture. This was one of the harder tricks that she had yet to fully get right. She whistled and Misty started galloping around the pasture. Clara quickly ran up, climbed on the fence, and mounted Misty as she continued to gallop. As she did that, Clara grabbed her sword that leaned against the fence a decapitated a few dummies before grabbing her crossbow and shooting the last one standing straight in the best before jumping off Misty and landing on her feet. "Yes! Finally!" Clara said smiling, she had finally perfected the trick, "That is what I am talking about!" She grabbed her beer and took a sip.

"That was pretty impressive," says Shun from a distance. Clara quickly looked over, "Who are you?" she asked, crossbow still in her hand ready to shoot if she needed to. "Don't worry. I'm not a threat," says Shun, putting his hands up, imitating surrender. "I was just passing through and heard some galloping, so I decided to check it out. I wasn't expecting to see something so fascinating." Clara raised an eyebrow at him before putting the crossbow down and taking her dagger out of her boot and twisting it around in her hands, "Get off my property," she said. Shun folds his arms, unphased. "So you saw through my ruse, eh?" "You look like your dad," Clara said grabbing Misty's reins, "Everyone always forgets about appearance. You can act as nice and unthreatening as you want, but if you don't disguise your appearance, it's easy to see right through someone. People know who I am cause I have the same eyes as my father. You look almost just like your dad." "Fortunately for me, I have my mother's eyes. Helps with the charm," says Shun with a mischievous smile. "You don't charm me," Clara said rolling her eyes, "Now like I said, get off of my property! I won't hesitate to cut you into pieces." "I'll leave. I just need you to tell me everything you know about your hero friend, Shane Facilier," says Shun. Clara gave a laugh, "Your almost, if not just as dumb as Midas and Eris. Get lost Shun, I'm not telling you anything. If I were you, I'd leave Shane out of your villain plan. If you go after him, you get more than just him as an enemy and you don't want me as one of your enemies." Shun scoffs. "Whatever happens between me and Shane is none of your concern. I am simply wishing to see if he lives up to the name he's made for himself. I won't concern myself with anyone lesser unless I see it necessary." "And why do you think I'd give you any information? I'm not a villain anymore, no matter what my father may say," Clara said crossing her arms. "You wouldn't want me to resort to torture, would you? Besides, if I get my hands on Shane, I won't hurt him too badly. It's just a test of his skills, his strength, his fighting spirit. All I desire is to be the greatest villain and what better way than to be the rival of the greatest hero?" Clara rolled her eyes, "You don't scare me. If Jocelyn doesn't scare me, you defiantly don't. I don't care how good you are at fighting, you can't torture me any more than I've already been and even then, I didn't break you, idiot. If you want information from someone, you have to study them. If you don't know how to get information from someone, you are hardly a villain, hardly. That's what you are. I know what a good villain and a bad villain looks like, I was the best villain. I was going to have the Villain Society but I went hero and then it went to Jocelyn." "And look where that got you. Everyone whom you used to be allied with is now against you. You were unable to protect your own son, so you resort to the gods. And then there's the matter of your temper. It's a wonder how anyone can even put up with you. You may be skilled with a dagger, but without it, you're just a vulnerable, worthless, broken husk of a woman who will never escape her past," says Shun, taunting her. "You could've had it all, but you threw it away. All because of Shane. You're truly pathetic, Frollo. You are a disgrace to your father's legacy." "Call me by my last name again, I dare you," Clara growled, "And you leave my son out of this. You think I can't protect him?! For months all I was doing was protecting him! I could have killed Jocelyn and I only didn't because of the stupid contract. If I could, I would kill Jocelyn in less than five minutes. And my temper? What do you think made me such a great villain? Your lucky that I have a good amount of control on my temper or you would be dead already. So what's next Shun? What are you going to bring up next to try to convince me to give you information? Let me guess, my father's abuse, or my mother's death. Oh, wait, no I know, how about my mass attempt of suicides! Nothing you say will get you anywhere. You don't know my weaknesses and you don't know how to affect me! If you want to get under my skin, you sure as hell need to learn more about me! Burn. In. Hell." Shun smiles. "Very well, then. I'll go. I need to be at my best if I'm going to face Shane tomorrow," he says. "Once he was made aware of my plan, he contacted me and arranged a 'meeting,' so to speak. I'm sure he'll take the moral high ground and come unarmed. Me, on the other hand? I'll have every weapon in my arsenal at the ready. Next, we meet, Clara, it will be gratifying!" He cackles as he throws down a smoke bomb and vanishes into thin air.

Clara rolled her eyes, "Idiot." She took Misty back to her stall and then called Shane, she felt like she should at least give him a call about what just happened.

"This better be important, Clara. I'm in the middle of something," says Shane. "Oh, so I can't just call my best friend anymore? Does it always have to be about something important? What if I am just bored and want to talk to you," Clara said sarcastically. "Clara, I'm helping Tina at the restaurant during rush hour. Restaurant's understaffed for today, so I volunteered to help," Shane explains. "But what's up?" "Shun showed up in Paris. I'm at the stables and he came and asked about you. I think he was trying to be more sneaky, but failed, he failed really bad," Clara said, "And no, he didn't get any information about you from me. I may be tipsy but I'm not dumb." "Shun? Oh, yeah. I know about him. We're gonna have a talk tomorrow," says Shane. "Be careful will you? You just had a daughter and Shun is after to be the best villain. I don't need Charlene calling and saying that something bad happened to you. I've got enough enemies for a lifetime and I don't feel like hunting Shun down to kill him for killing you." "I will, I will. I know he's planning something. Besides, he can't touch a shadow. Chances of him killing me are slim, especially since he doesn't even know how I fight." "Alright, I'm trusting you which is probably a bad idea. Just don't underestimate him, I don't know how he fights but his dad is Shan Yu and that means he comes from a family with a battle strategy. You don't need magic to outsmart or beat someone with magic, I'm proof of that. Promise me you'll call or at least text after your done with your quote on quote talk with Shun and tell me what happened? I'm going to be paranoid until I know you're okay." "Gotcha," says Shane. "Shun sounds like he'll be quite the challenge. Looking forward to tomorrow." Clara rolled her eyes, "You sound like me when I was a villain. Not a compliment." "Well, you sound like me, so I guess the tables have turned," says Shane. "I gotta go. Just got five more orders. Good thing I didn't forget how to make shadow clones. See ya." "Quickly, then you can hang up. Next week, if Charlene is up for it, bring Shika to my place. I still haven't gotten to meet her and I want to. I won't drink, Claytin will probably hide my beers if you do come," Clara said quickly before he hung up. "Alright. I'll be sure to bring her over," says Shane. "See you then, good luck tomorrow," Clara said before hanging up.